Jefferson County lies in the heart of the Olympic Peninsula and features dramatic coastlines set against the Pacific Ocean, lush rainforests, and snow-capped mountains. The county is divided across the middle by the Olympic Mountain Range in Olympic National Park. It is precisely because of places like Jefferson County and Olympic N.P. that many choose to call the Pacific Northwest home. The largest city in the county is Port Townsend, a small maritime city located at the entrance of the Puget Sound. The city is well known for the many Victorian-style buildings which remain from the 19th-century. Furthermore, Jefferson County serves as the primary route to the West Sound and Seattle area with the Hood Canal Bridge and the Port Townsend to Keystone ferry route.

Looking towards the Olympic Mountains from the Hoh River.

Port Townsend City Hall
In late 2006, Norm attended the re-opening of City Hall in Port Townsend, one of Jefferson County’s most historic structures and one of this city’s most prominent landmarks. The building has been the center of government since it originally opened in 1892, and the restoration work, assisted by funds appropriated by Congress, has modernized the building while preserving the essential elements of its classic architecture. As the Chairman of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, with jurisdiction over the historic preservation accounts within the National Park Service budget, Norm is a leading advocate in Congress for historic preservation funding and he has supported projects like City Hall that offer a combination of economic development though tourism as well as historic preservation.

Hamilton Heights
Norm has also had a keen interest in housing and homeownership programs throughout his career. He became personally involved in an effort to promote homeownership in Port Townsend’s Hamilton Heights neighborhood, and he was able to secure federal assistance from two federal departments (HUD and USDA) that leveraged additional funding from local governments and the private sector to help build new, moderate-priced homes. The effort was managed by the Kitsap County Housing Authority, which has helped other communities in the region to promote homeownership, rebuild the housing stock and redevelop older areas of many cities and towns.

Ferry Situation
The Port Townsend area faced a near-crisis situation in November when the State Transportation Department removed four older steel-electric ferries from service, including the Port Townsend-Keystone run, for safety reasons. While a 50-car replacement ferry has now been assigned to the route, the situation highlights the need to increase ferry construction funding at the state level, and to bring additional transportation funding from the federal government for this purpose. As a lifelong West Sound resident, dependent on good ferry service, Norm Dicks has continually advocated more equitable federal assistance to the nation’s “highways across water.” He originally created a special account in the Surface Transportation Act for ferry construction, and it has annually sent $5 million to the State of Washington to defray the cost of new ferry construction. He is currently working to build congressional support to expand the ferry construction account in the next version of federal highway reauthorization legislation.

NW Maritime Center
Norm is looking forward later this year to the groundbreaking of the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, a unique facility that will provide a place on the Port Townsend waterfront where residents and visitors can experience the region’s rich maritime heritage, authentic trades and resources. It will also be the permanent home for the 30-year-old Wooden Boat Foundation, whose annual festival draws thousands to Port Townsend. As a focal point for the historic seaport, the Maritime Center will help preserve and promote Port Townsend’s working waterfront through partnerships and collaboration with the local marine trades and maritime community. Norm worked to secure a federal “Brownfields” grant for the purchase and cleanup of the site on the Port Townsend waterfront, and has since located additional federal funding that will be used for the development of the site and building, which begins construction this year.

Artist's rendition of the NW Maritime Center in Port Townsend.

Olympic National Park
Norm has been determined to restore the operations budgets of our National Parks, including Olympic N.P. that have fallen behind during recent tough budget years. In order to improve the visitor experience at the Parks, he is working with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to shift funds to allow permanent and seasonal personnel levels to meet the real demands of these popular park facilities. At Olympic N.P., for example, the number of rangers, interpretative and maintenance personnel has declined dramatically in the last several years, often resulting in only one new hire for every two or three employees who leave or retire. In the Budget for the current fiscal year, Norm was able to gain congressional approval for a modest boost in the park accounts, and he is working to continue the effort for next year.

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